Nevertheless, with few people around and thick shrubbery for an attacker to hide in along the paths inside Bloomsbury Square, we walked around the edge of the park instead of through it.
When we arrived at Sir Broderick’s town house, unharmed but slightly out of breath from hurrying, Jacob opened the door as soon as we rang and took our cloaks, hats, and gloves. We waited for him and then walked upstairs as a group to enter the study.
Frances Atterby and Adam Fogarty were already seated with Sir Broderick, who waved a sheet of cream-colored notepaper at us. “Lady Westover has graciously set up a family dinner for her relation, Georgia Peabody, which will include a couple of the peers involved in this case. Lord Naylard and his sister have already accepted. Her grandson will also be in attendance.”
Emma and I fixed tea from the pot kept warm under a tea cozy while Jacob helped himself to Dominique’s digestive biscuits. Then we settled into chairs at a distance from Sir Broderick’s roaring fire. “How does Inspector Grantham feel about being dragged into one of our investigations?” I needed to know how angry he was going to be at me for involving his grandmother.
“He’s threatened to lock Lady Westover up in her home, but she writes that he knows how far that will get him.”
“He’ll be taking it out on me, then.” I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s not a problem unless he gives me away.”
“He won’t, Georgia, unless it’s necessary to save his grandmother’s life.”
I knew Sir Broderick was right. Inspector Grantham had worked with us before and not given us away. “When is this family dinner?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“That doesn’t give us much time. What has anyone learned?”
Fogarty answered my question first. “I played the chap from the Water Board. I was suspicious of a woman with a colicky baby across from Drake’s and one house over. I sent Grace back, thinking it needed a woman’s touch. The mother had been up with the baby at about the correct time and looked out the window. She saw a very ordinary coach with no markings whose driver sat in the box the entire time. They were there at least five minutes, but not ten.”
“Did she see anything of the passengers?”
He flipped over a page in his notebook. “No. She heard men’s voices when they left, but she was on the wrong side of the street to see them. They seemed to be in a hurry getting away, shouting at the driver to get a move on.”
“Not a shiny, tall, ancient carriage?”
“No. Just a rental you’d expect to see hired to take a group somewhere. She remembered one of the two horses was a gray. She thought the coach would look better if the horses matched.”
“Definitely not the duke’s carriage. Edith Carter lied about that. Why? And what else has been a lie?”
Fogarty said, “I talked to her maid when I went to her house on my rounds for our fictitious Water Board survey. She said it was just the mistress and her.”
“No parents. Why did she lie to me about that? What possible difference could that make?” I’d been badly used by Miss Carter.
“I’m sure she has a reason for every lie, Georgia. The story about the coach may have been to point our attention at the duke.” Sir Broderick smiled, his eyes half-closed.
“He and his fellow club members are the only people we’ve found so far who might have a reason to abduct Mr. Drake,” Frances said. “Of course, there’s no reason why he would choose his victims from only one club. Once we saw the connection between Mr. Drake and debutantes, I started looking at the parties he was invited to last season. He attended at least fifty balls, although none of the smaller entertainments.”
Frances took a sip of her tea. “I talked to a couple of my contacts, middle-aged gently born ladies who act as chaperones at these balls so the mamas can go elsewhere. They remember Drake. He could always be counted on to fill out the dance cards of the less-popular misses and make himself agreeable wherever. It sounded to me as if he had ample opportunity to snatch the odd small, valuable trinket.”
“And seek out signs of scandal for blackmail,” I added.
“No one is ever more alone than in a crush at a ball,” Sir Broderick said. “What else has anyone found?”
Jacob said, “I tried all the pubs in the area, looking for Nicholas Drake’s friends Harry and Tom. Said I’d heard they were looking for me for a spot of work. I finally met up with Tom Whitaker. He said they didn’t have anything planned at this time, but they’d keep me in mind if they did. I told them I’d talked to Drake a few days ago and he said there was work to be had and soon. That’s when Tom said he’d not seen Drake in a few days and didn’t know about any plans. And I learned Harry’s last name is Conover.”